Bradester fends off challengers in Ack Ack

Bradester captured his second graded stakes in the Ack Ack as the 6-5 favorite (Churchill Downs/Reed Palmer Photography) Joseph W. Sutton’s Bradester was much the best as he dug in down the stretch to prevail in Saturday’s Grade 3, $107,300 Ack Ack Handicap at Churchill Downs, as the 6-5 favorite. Bradester was sent to the front from the outside post to clock an opening quarter in :23 2/5. The four-year-old colt allowed Right to Vote to claim the lead down on the inside as the field went into the far turn, and put up a half mile in :45 3/5. Bradester was content losing the lead as he geared back up around the turn to take back over entering the stretch, as Right To Vote started to fade. Carve put in a rally and attempted to reel in Bradester in midstretch, but could get no closer than a length to the eventual winner. Bradester dug in to fight off that foe and drew clear in the end to score by 1 3/4 lengths. “I had a perfect trip; just like we wanted him to,” jockey Corey Lanerie said. “If somebody wanted the lead I was going to let them have it. But I kept him out of trouble and was just a good passenger.”

The Eddie Kenneally charge covered one mile over the fast main track in 1:34
2/5. Bradester paid $4.40 for his second career stakes
victory and now has a record that stands at 14-5-5-1, $455,532. 

“He’s been really, really good,” Kenneally said. “He’s matured and developed
and I think he’s a better horse than he was and he’s still improving. He’s just
better with age, perhaps.”

Carve claimed second and was 5 1/2 lengths clear of third-place finisher
Flashback, who was making his first start of the year. Right To Vote and
Politicallycorrect finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

Bradester made his racing debut at Churchill Downs in October 2012, finishing
second in that initial outing, before breaking his maiden one month later by 3
1/4 lengths. The Kentucky-bred colt scored in an optional claimer at Gulfstream
Park while making his sophomore debut next out on New Year’s Day, but wasn’t
seen in action again until a runner-up effort in a Saratoga optional claimer in
August.

Bradester tried stakes company for the first time in the Indiana Derby and
reputed himself well when second, then suffered his first off-the-board run by
filling the fourth spot in an optional claimer back at Churchill. He closed out
2013 with another placing under the Twin Spires against similar.

The son of Lion Heart opened 2014 with an optional claiming win at Gulfstream
Park in January and scored his first stakes the next month in the Grade 3
Mineshaft Handicap at Fair Grounds. The bay followed that victory with a
sixth-place finish in the New Orleans Handicap in March and a fifth-place finish
in the Alysheba over this track in May. Bradester took a short break and
returned in July to grab runner-up in the Salvatore Mile as well as the Monmouth
Cup his last two times out.

Bred by Doug Branham, Bradester sold for $13,000 as a Keeneland November
weanling before brining $20,000 a year later at the Fasig-Tipton Easter Fall
Yearling Sale. He made one more trip through the auction ring, selling for
$195,000 at the 2012 Fasig-Tipton Florida Sale as a two-year-old.

Bradester is the first registered stakes scorer out of the winning Grand Slam
mare Grandestofall, who is a half-sister to stakes victor Short Round and
stakes-placed Cat Striker. His third dam is Grade 2 vixen Zealous Connection,
who would go on in the breeding shed to produce Grade 3 hero Here’s Zealous,
Grade 3 runner-up There’s Zealous and stakes diva She’s Zealous.

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